2008 td-net Award for Transdisciplinary Research

Eawag’s strategy of
bridging between cutting-edge research and practice has not gone unnoticed: the
2008 Award for Transdisciplinary Research – carrying a prize of CHF 75,000 –
has been won by the Novaquatis urine source separation project. The award is
made under the aegis of the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences “td-net for
Transdisciplinary Research”, in recognition of the project managers’ commitment
to transdisciplinarity: as well as integrating environmental, engineering and
social scientific research, they sought the cooperation of non-academic
partners at an early stage.

The
basic idea is simple: urine accounts for only 1% of the total volume of wastewater,
but it contains up to 80% of all the nutrients. If it is processed separately, wastewater
treatment plants can be reduced in size, water protection can be improved, and nutrients
can be recycled. Separate treatment of wastewater streams thus opens up new
possibilities, and there are many reasons for adopting urine source separation (“NoMix”)
technology on a large scale. This applies in particular to emerging countries
such as China, where sewerage and wastewater treatment facilities cannot keep
up with the rapid pace of urbanization, and water pollution arising from
domestic wastewater has reached devastating levels.

While
the Eawag researchers’ approach may sound straightforward, there is no
guarantee that it can be implemented in practice: infrastructure that is
already in place cannot be transformed overnight; the new toilets still have
some defects – pipes may be blocked by urine scale; the sanitary industry as
yet sees little commercial potential in the NoMix technology, and the
fertilizer produced from urine cannot yet compete with low-cost artificial
products. So obstacles remain to be overcome. The prize money from the award is
therefore to be used to support further research: if urine is to be treated with
the aid of decentralized systems, and nutrients are to recovered in a
concentrated form for recycling, what options offer the best prospects of implementation
and the lowest environmental impact? For Tove Larsen, who received the award,
together with Judit Lienert, at the 2008 Transdisciplinary Conference in Zurich,
it is quite clear: “It’s standard practice for garden waste to be separately
collected. So surely it should also be possible one day for the six kilograms
of concentrated phosphorus produced each year by a family of four to be separately
processed.”

Once
again, the research will involve a transdisciplinary process. According to co-project
manager Judit Lienert, this is one of the pillars on which Eawag’s work has
always rested: “Problems can only be solved with the involvement of all
stakeholders. That includes authorities, engineering consultants, and
industrial partners, as well as consumers.”